Published: December 9, 2024
In: Taylor & Francis, International Journal of Radiation Biology
By: Denis L. Henshaw, Alasdair Philips

Excerpt from the full article – footnotes added by Multerland

Conventional medical science usually attributes EHS symptoms as being psychologically driven by ‘electrophobia’ or the ‘nocebo’¹ response. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently states that ‘EHS has no clear diagnostic criteria and that there is no scientific basis to link EHS symptoms to EMF exposure’. The WHO uses the term idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to EMF² (IEI-EMF) (WHO Citation2005).

Most subjective provocation studies³ fail to confirm EHS as an environmental illness. However, a fundamental lack of understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved has resulted in the design of completely inappropriate provocation tests (Leszczynski Citation2022) and in unsustainable interpretation of their findings (Bosch-Capblanch et al. Citation2024).

Interdisciplinary research⁴ has established in numerous species that all forms of life respond to MFs⁵, in some cases with extraordinary sensitivity. Many species also respond to EFs⁶, although the body of available research is limited in comparison to that concerning magnetoreception.

This study investigates whether EHS in people is a syndrome that adversely⁷ affects human well-being caused by environmental exposures and if so, by what mechanism(s) it occurs. We ask the following key questions:

1. How are some living organisms, including humans, sensitive to EMFs from natural and anthropogenic sources at levels well below the essentially static geomagnetic (GM) field of between 23 and 65 microtesla (μT) and many orders of magnitude below current human exposure guidance levels?
2. What are the biophysical processes by which EMF signals may be sensed?
3. Which biological processes account for responses to exposures?
4. Which of these factors may be related to human electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)?

By examining in detail the latest systematic reviews of human epidemiological and experimental research (Röösli et al. Citation2024; Bosch-Capblanch et al. Citation2024; Schmiedchen et al. Citation2019), we find them not fit for purpose. A major problem is the vast heterogeneity⁸ of modern anthropomorphic⁹ exposures and outcomes, making these studies impossible to assess as an overall group. This is made worse by inadequate measurement and reporting of the MFs involved (frequency, strength, and morphology¹⁰). In addition, inadequate electromagnetic hygiene used for sham exposures¹¹ in experimental studies, especially with respect to complex mixes of EMF signals, results in uncontrolled exposures that do no more than act as confounders¹².

The underlying design of many human studies is often based on ICNIRP¹³ EMF exposure guidance documents, which only recognize exposures that cause thermal effects or electric shock. (ICNIRP Citation2010, Citation2020; IEEE Citation2019).

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Full article, Open access: A mechanistic understanding of human magnetoreception validates the phenomenon of electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) – https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09553002.2024.2435329#abstract

Footnotes, added by Multerland

1. Medsafe, the nocebo effect ↩︎
2. ScienceDirect: Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields ↩︎
3. Wikipedia, provocation test. Note by Multerland: a provocation study should be then the research or observation of this test ↩︎
4. U.S. National Science Foundation: What is interdisciplinary research? ↩︎
5. MF: Magnetic Fields ↩︎
6. EF: Electromagnetic Fields ↩︎
7. Wikipedia: adverse effect ↩︎
8. CASP articles: Heterogeneity in research ↩︎
9. Brittannica: anthropomorphism ↩︎
10. University of Sheffield, Centre for Linguistic Research: What is Morphology? ↩︎
11. EMF portal: sham exposure ↩︎
12. Understanding Health Research: Confounders. ↩︎
13. Multerland pages about ICNIRP ↩︎

Additional information, added by Multerland

1. Electromagnetism in the human body
2. Book: The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life, authors: Robert O Becker and Gary Selden. First edition: 1985
3. Multerland / EMF links / EHS, a collection of 28 articles
4. Documentary: 2017 / Wi-Fi Refugees. Electrosensitive people try to escape wireless technology – Video
   By: RT Documentary
   Published: July, 2017
5. Multerland / EMF links / ICNIRP (group denying the biological effects of EMF)
6. Multerland / EMF links / Biological effects of EMF

Comment, by Multerland:

Review of a review, cited in an article about EHS